6/20/2008 @ 6:00PM

LinkedIn Adds Polls

That’s the conclusion of a new poll commissioned by Forbes.com and conducted by social network LinkedIn among its members.

Nearly half of those polled this week about their favorite electronics said they would like an iPhone as a gift, while 26% selected Apple‘s
lightweight MacBook Air. A GPS navigation system and Amazon.com‘s
Kindle e-book garnered fewer votes, 11% and 3%, respectively.

All told, LinkedIn launched four polls Tuesday on its site that attracted between 600 and 1,100 responses from members. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company sees its new poll feature, which is in beta, as a way to encourage members to interact more with each other and the site itself. Using basic profile information, each poll can be sorted by demographics, such as job seniority level, company size and job function. Basic demographic profiles such as gender and age are also available.

Social network sites like LinkedIn could provide researchers with richer background information–pulled from member profiles–than the typical survey. The drawback is that the site, with its business-oriented focus, is far from a representative sample of the population, or even of the business community. Certain industries, such as marketing, advertising and consulting, are particularly active on the site, possibly skewing survey results.

Nevertheless, LinkedIn plans to let its 23 million members distribute polls to their own networks, as well as target specific audiences outside their connections. It’s all part of a larger growth plan that helped the company nab $53 million in venture financing this week. The company is now valued at $1 billion.